


Deal with the Demon

by neverending_shenanigans



Series: Cullenmance-Fusion-Bingo [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Labyrinth Fusion, Be Careful What You Wish For, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Solas is a villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:28:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27560755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverending_shenanigans/pseuds/neverending_shenanigans
Summary: In which Cullen wished that the Dreadwolf take away Mia, and the Dreadwolf obliged.Now ten of his thirteen nights to win her back had passed - and another deal is offered to him.
Relationships: Female Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford
Series: Cullenmance-Fusion-Bingo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2014525
Kudos: 6





	Deal with the Demon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PeanutButterWhiskeyTime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeanutButterWhiskeyTime/gifts).



> _This is a gift, it comes with a price_   
>  _Who is the lamb and who is the knife?_

* * *

Cullen had been walking for hours through this forest. He was almost certain he had walked past this particular tree three times already. He could not even see the moon and had no way of knowing if it was night or day. And time was gliding through his fingers. _Thirteen nights,_ the voice had said. _Thirteen nights to win her back, or both of you will be my pawns._

He had no way of knowing how much time it had been, exactly, but he knew that the answer was ‘too long’. Unable to contain the rage in his chest, Cullen balled his hands into a fist, and hit that damned, crooked tree.

He had been so _sure_ that he would make it, in the beginning. That he would wind back time to the cursed moment of weakness when he had wished away his sister to that _demon_ in a moment of anger.

Maker’s Breath, he should have known better than this. He should have known not to mess with the old legends. Honestly, he’d thought that he could never hit a lower point than endorsing Meredith. Yet here he was. In the realm of everything the Chantry had warned him about. Because he had been stupid.

“Have you given up already?”

Cullen flinched, immediately at his feet, whirling around. “Who is there?”

A girl stepped out from behind a tree. “You may call me Lavellan.” No – not a girl. Her small frame misguided him – this was a woman. One of them. An _elf_. She wore a silvery-white dress and her hair was pulled back by some silver threads, it seemed, to reveal her pointy ears.

Cullen scowled. “Are you the one who took her? My sister? Give her back!” He drew his sword.

The girl titled her head to her side, then opened her arms, gave a twirl. Maker’s Breath, she clearly was an otherworldly being. Was this what a demon of temptation looked like?

“As you can see, I carry no human woman with me. I am not the one responsible. But I have heard of you, Cullen Rutherford. We have not had a human brave enough to enter the Crossroads in ages.” She walked around him, but there was no sound coming from her footsteps. It was as if she was light as a feather.

He made sure to keep an eye on her, not to allow her to slip from his gaze. “Do you know where my sister is? Do you know who has her?”

“So many questions. I _do_ know. And you know, too. Didn’t you wish her away with it? The old words of my people?”

Cullen hung his head. “May the Dread-“ Before he could finish it, she had stepped to him, pressed one of her hands on his mouth. The proximity made his heart jump to his throat.

“Don’t speak his name in this realm, or you will draw his glowing eyes on us. Right now, he is distracted or I would not be here.” She lowered her hand again, stepped back.

There was a serious expression on her face now. And suddenly, he wondered how he could have ever mistaken her for a child. She looked older than he was. “You have but a few nights left to reach Arlathan. You have hardly a chance; he does not play this game fairly.”

“Game?” Cullen bit out. “This is but a game to your people?”

Lavellan scowled at him, and seemed quite less ethereal than before. “I see your kind has not lost your tendency to lump all of us together blindly. Will you call me a knife-ear next? If you want to save your sister, listen to me. You have lost many nights in this forest. More than you think.” 

She placed a hand on the trunk of the tree next to them. Its branches began to shift. For the first time in a while, Cullen could see the sky – and the moon. It was almost full. If he was lucky, he had maybe two nights left to defeat this Labyrinth beyond the Veil. And from what he could see, he was no closer to the castle than when he entered this forest through the mirror.

Cullen cursed. “He tricked me! He manipulates time? That is not fair.”

Lavellan pulled her palm back, and the tree resumed its former position. “The flow of time is always cruel beyond the Veil. And that is why I am here now, and I risk much to just talk to you. I propose a deal.”

A short, bitter laugh escaped Cullen. A deal. A deal with a demon. Just what he had been warned about his entire life. “Why would I bargain with one demon to defeat another?”

“Because we are as much his prisoners as your sister is. If you want to free her, you will need my help to get there,” she hissed at him. For a moment he imagined he could see the silvery shimmer of the dress as silverite armor on her.

Then she caught herself. Out of thin air she summoned a ball of glass to her palm. His gaze was drawn to it and he noticed the movement. He saw a golden ballroom, and people in masks that were dancing. And among them… his sister Mia. But her expression was almost as if in trance. Cullen couldn’t help himself, he reached for the glass ball. But the moment his finger’s touched it, the whole sphere burst, like a bubble.

When he looked up again, at Lavellan, her expression this time was one he knew – grief. “In Arlathan, time has stood still for ages. The veil bends itself to his will, and he has enclosed my people within as much as he keeps your kind out. He says it is to protect us, to preserve our glory, but we did not ask for this. We long to be freed.”

Cullen frowned. This was different from what the Chantry taught them. They said the Maker created the Veil to protect them from demons; the demons that all elves had become in their hunger for magic. And yet –he had no real choice, had he? “What would you have me do?”

Lavellan reached into the folds of her dress, and pulled out another orb. But this one was made of what seemed like metal and had a green glow to it. “This is an anchor of his power. It allows you to pass through the Crossroads and leave this place.”

He stared at the object. He had seen such a one before. The old woman in the forest … the one who had taught him the spell that had started this mess! Had this been the monster that had taken his sister, in disguise? When he reached out for it, she pulled back, slightly. “I stole it from him, and it is bound to me. One needs magic to use it. So I will do so for you. I will open the mirrors for you and you can reach Arlathan in time to reclaim your sister.”

It seemed too good to be true. Too easy. “And the price?”

She smiled at him now, and again he saw the otherworldly vision that had his heart jump to his throat. “You have to take me with you. No matter what he offers – when you win, you have to take me back to your world with you.”

Cullen stared at her, for a moment. That seemed too easy a deal. He was not foolish. But what choice was there? He had bargained away his sister once. He had to accept this one, too. So he held out his hand. “Deal. Let’s seal it.”

She laughed. “Yes, let us do that.” But instead of shaking his hand, she got up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written back in April, when (due to Lockdown-Shenanigans) I crazily decided to write twenty-five different Cullenmance-Oneshots that ALL had to be fushions or crossovers with different fandoms. The initial plan was to keep it short and stop me from spinning my one-shot-ideas into multi-chaptered-behemoths. I never got past number seven and I had all but forgotten about it until Wiggins asked me about it today.  
> So, yeah, why not? Here it is.
> 
> I had plans to continue this one (my original purpose of writint this be damned), by the way.  
> They involved Merill and Fenris and Feynriel and even Morrigan, Mythal and Alistair, in my mind. 
> 
> I don't think I'll continue this months later, though, so for those wondering: The Crossroads are the Labyrinth, Arlathan is the city at the heart of it. Solas is a bit of a more absent!Jareth. Yes, Lavellan is tricking Cullen, as is her job for Solas (kinda Hoggle). And her outfit is absolutely meant as a nod to Sarah's outfit. She keeps appearing and disappearing on Cullen, so she really also takes Jareth's role in this.  
> She also works for Mythal, who tricked Cullen into wishing away his sister so he would free her people. And yeah, Lavellan is totally gonna fall hard for Cullen.


End file.
